Good times have finally comes to Cooks Inn Cooking School and the people who run it. Classes are bursting with students, they are fully staffed and newly profitable. So when Neva Moore’s boss, Linnea Addams, insists they leave in hot pursuit of a prestigious industry award, the Prix International Gastronome aka the PIG, it's highly unusual, but possible. Maybe even a good idea. While Neva could use a little R&R and break from the non-stop fury of getting the Inn to the point they were ready to take off and fly like the seabirds outside their door, the PIG wasn't a bad idea. Recognition from your peers is never a bad idea, even if it was Linnea's. But the good times prove to be fleeting.

First students desert en-mass with no warning. Then her friend Rollie goes missing, right after a shocking murder in town. Lastly, a batch of previously happy employees quit without notice. And they look mighty guilty. Neva knows they need to call off pursuit of the PIG at least until they figure out what's happening, but Linnea won't hear of it. She demands they leave ASAP, which is even more unusual than her demand to go in the first place.

What's really driving Linnea? Could Rollie be a murderer? Finding answers leads to a world where the distant past holds the key to the present, old books are newly found, and where sabotage and murder are just tools of the trade.